Gonna be winning for The Donald, regardless of the 8 November outcome.

The Trump brand will benefit, and his global legacy has already been assured, even in its vulgarity. All Trump golf courses are branded “National”, so Trump First is inevitably America First, and as we’ve seen, America Frist, with so much ignorance and intercessory stupidity from Birtherism to Islamophobia.

Gonna be a bumpy ride for the nativist mash-up of America First fascism and brand theory(sic)

“You know, you have to brand people a certain way when they’re your opponents,” Mr. Trump said, before relishing in perhaps his most devastating description of this election cycle — calling Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, “low energy.”

“Like Jeb Bush — we call him low energy, low energy,” he continued. “And I don’t care talking badly about him. He spent $29 million in negatives on me, $29 million. Can you believe it? Of other people’s money. Of his lobbyist and his special interest money.”

“Now,” he finished with a flourish, as the crowd roared, “Trump is favored.”

one pharoah’s pyramid scheme: electing a brand or branding an electorate

What can marketing and communications professionals learn from all of this? Without advocating for or against any position or candidate, campaign watchers can all learn from (and be entertained by) brand lessons gleaned from Trump’s candidacy.

1) Define your narrative or someone else will

2) The importance of being authentic to your brand

3) Don’t try to mimic other brands

4) Once you find your voice, people pay attention

5) A good brand strategy is about inspiring the future, not reliving the past

Triangulation can cut many ways when improperly executed as we discovered in 2000 and 2004 and again at the district levels in 2010 and 2014 with even higher problems of the incipient racism of US elections as well as residual blue-doggism.

A Trump pivot seems to be an impossibility and given the GOP’s ideological fracturing, the GOP RNC in Cleveland should be inherently crazy. This will not unfortunately drain the Koch financial juggernaut as that money might go to more RW down ticket races rather than try to help pull the Trump free media train, even as Trump has expected the GOP to cough up their share after his primary self-funding.

But now, according to campaign adviser Paul Manafort, Trump will demonstrate “more depth,” show that he is “evolving” and change “the part that he’s been playing.” The campaign has promised to hire speechwriters and Trump is practicing on a teleprompter in his office. “At some point,” says Trump, “I’m going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored.”

In the Trump pivot, he may move right, or left, or some incomprehensible combination of the two. (How many supporters of Planned Parenthood have the immediate instinct to punish women who have abortions?)

Lacking a political philosophy, the reactions of any given day are uncertain. Trump is the quantum candidate: You can know his position on an issue, or the date on a calendar, but it is impossible to predict both at once.

The concept of a general election pivot — that candidates can shed extreme and divisive statements and policies as they move from partisan primaries into the general election in order to appeal to a wider swath of the electorate — is at best an exaggerated phenomenon. In the case of Donald Trump, it is an impossibility.

Trump’s conservatism is not based on a set of policy positions that can be slightly modified or added to in order to make them more palatable. His campaign was born in the fringes of the conservative movement.

The American public’s memory might be short, but they will not forget that Trump’s presidential campaign is rooted in the birther movement and his doubts about the validity of President Obama’s birth certificate.

He cannot moderate his proposal “for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

And Trump cannot force the public to unremember the plethora of sexist statements he has made, from denigrating Carly Fiorina by stating, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” to his sexist attacks Megyn Kelly.

Trump’s controversial statements were not random or an accident. They were designed to curry favor with the far right. In early April Gabe Sherman reported in New York magazine that the Trump campaign’s communications efforts began with a study of what appealed to the conservative radio audience.